


To be nobody but yourself

by semicolonsandsimiles



Category: Dreamer Trilogy - Maggie Stiefvater, Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Gen, Light Angst, Missing Scene, Phone Calls & Telephones, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:02:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24457897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/semicolonsandsimiles/pseuds/semicolonsandsimiles
Summary: Mrs. Gansey got straight to the point. “I can’t believe you would do this to us,” she said in her calmest, most Senator-Gansey voice. “I know we raised you better.”Gansey was momentarily nonplussed. He knew that his mother’s usualhow are you, what have you been up to recentlywas mostly asked out of politeness rather than interest. But it took a lot for her to skip over the niceties -- ah. This was about what he’d been up to recently. “I haven’t done anything to you, mother,” he replied, echoing her tone but putting the slightest emphasis onto.--------------------------------------------Gansey's parents find out he's chained to a tree. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34
Collections: TRC/ CDTH Prompt Week 2020





	To be nobody but yourself

**Author's Note:**

> For day 6 of TRC/Dreamer Trilogy prompt week - missing scene.

His mother’s name lit up the caller ID on Gansey’s phone. He groaned. Did she really expect him to fly all the way across the country to attend some political event? 

There was no use putting it off, though. He answered the phone. 

Mrs. Gansey got straight to the point. “I can’t believe you would do this to us,” she said in her calmest, most Senator-Gansey voice. “I know we raised you better.”

Gansey was momentarily nonplussed. He knew that his mother’s usual _how are you, what have you been up to recently_ was mostly asked out of politeness rather than interest. But it took a lot for her to skip over the niceties -- ah. This was about what he’d been up to recently. “I haven’t done anything to you, mother,” he replied, echoing her tone but putting the slightest emphasis on _to._

“How can you say that when you know it’s an election year? Any other time we could brush it off as youthful indiscretion and wait for it to blow over, but now? It’s only a month before election day!”

“No one’s voting for me, I should hope.” Gansey knew he was being obtuse. When he was young, he’d thought that once he was an adult he’d be able to make decisions based on what he wanted to do, without considering whether he was _acting like a Gansey._ But it had dawned on him -- gradually at first, then rapidly over the past year or so -- that his parents did not and would not see it that way.

He still didn’t know what he was going to do with that knowledge.

“You know what I mean,” his mother snapped. She was still trying to speak calmly, but Gansey could hear the anger. No, the annoyance. Ganseys didn’t get angry. “History and archaeology are perfectly respectable hobbies, even if they are a bit eccentric. Ecoterrorism is something else entirely.”

Gansey didn’t know where she’d learned of his current activity, but he’d assumed her information was at least accurate. So much for assuming. “Mother,” he said slowly, “what exactly is it you think I’m doing?”

“You have _chained_ yourself to a _tree._ ”

Gansey waited for whatever else she’d heard. “And?”

“And nothing!” There was a horrified silence. “Are you telling me you’ve done something _worse_?”

“Chaining oneself to a tree isn’t ecoterrorism,” Gansey said patiently. “It’s a form of nonviolent protest.”

“Don’t get pedantic with me. Whatever it is, it isn’t respectable behavior for a Gansey.”

There it was, laid out baldly. _You’re not acting like a Gansey._ Gansey still didn’t know what he was going to do with it. He nudged the conversation in a different direction, because he knew what his mother was most urgently concerned about. “I’m an adult responsible for my own behavior. If the media can’t see that, it’s their problem. How did they find out, anyway?”

“They haven’t yet,” she admitted.

“So you can keep it from getting out,” Gansey suggested. 

“It would be a lot of trouble,” his mother sighed. As though she hadn’t been planning on it anyway. “But yes.”

“Then I don’t see what the problem is.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. When it finally broke, his mother's voice was fully Senator Gansey again. “We’ll speak about this later.” 

She hung up.


End file.
